Xhaka not happy with the early leavers

[Cack Stottie]

I noticed it either the Liverpool or Fulham game, cant remember which so it must be a relatively new thing

Great if true. When you're in the crack with your mates it's easy to completely miss that the game has restarted, so anything they can do to alert people is worthwhile. Not everyone wants to stand there and miss kick off, but it's easily done.

 

[Roker Scoreboard]

Different grounds, different circumstances. Once you leave your seat in the SOL you have to leave the stadium, but at Roker Park you could edge towards the exits but still stay in the ground. That was certainly the case in the Fulwell End. People would start to drift to the side exits 5-10 minutes before the end so they could make a quick getaway when the whistle went. The two corners in the Fulwell used to be packed for the last few minutes.

Surely this is the case in most modern stadium's and we seem to have an issue more than most?

 

[tunstallhill]

Let's be honest - 99% of people who leave early do so because it saves them time and they get home a bit earlier. They don't want to spend 10 mins stuck at the back of the stand or an extra 30 mins in traffic or whatever. Some may also want to sneak an extra pint in before they have to be home.

If we're serious about combatting this issue then the club needs to look at ways of clearing the ground quicker at full time (it doesn't take 20 mins to get down the steps btw it takes 10 - I've timed it) and of easing traffic congestion around the ground. Also, needs to be a quicker turnaround of getting drinks served to people at half time (this should be the easiest one to solve in theory).

Either that or the team has to put in a brilliant performance every week and every game has to be a classic that goes down to the wire (never going to happen and even if it did some would still leave).

I'm back row of east stand and if we wait till full time , it can and usually is well over 10 minutes before you get to bottom of stairs. The other three stands are completely empty and often you feel like the only person left in the ground at all. So your stood there in an empty ground other than the queue of people in front of you , knowing that 48000 people are now heading into the town or the pubs or where ever and you are behind them all.

 

[Madcap11]

Makes you wonder why that extra 30 minutes getting home is so important to people.... especially when it's a Saturday at 5.30pm when most people's diary are free at that time of day and there is no work to goto next day....what actually are people doing between 5.30 and 6.30 if they are home...I suggest not a lot

For example, some people need to be at home, some need to visit their grandparents, and others may be dealing with serious illnesses that require their presence. Children also need to be looked after, especially if a partner has to be somewhere else. Everyone has different circumstances in their lives. It’s not their fault if they need to leave early.

 

[Cack Stottie]

For example, some people need to be at home, some need to visit their grandparents, and others may be dealing with serious illnesses that require their presence. Children also need to be looked after, especially if a partner has to be somewhere else. Everyone has different circumstances in their lives. It’s not their fault if they need to leave early.

I don't think there's any denying that there are always going to be people who have genuine reasons to leave their seats before the game is over.

However, the sheer volume and scale of it, particularly in the last two home games, would suggest that there hasn't been a spate of illnesses amongst family members of supporters!

What we are very specifically talking about here are people who are, in effect, simply turning their back on the team, and not for very good reasons.

What we all want is for Sunderland to win games, and the environment in which the players play in is generally conducive to how successful we are in games. If the atmosphere is flat and then people are piling out when we are still in a game, it's not helpful to what happens on the park. I think it goes without saying that we have a far better chance of leveling up the score on Saturday if 99% of fans remain in their seats til the end and get behind the players.

We've seen it so many times before - the crowd can help suck the ball into the net.

 

[Bacchus]

Is there any conceivable way the club could make it more difficult for people to leave?!

Probably not due to H&S, but perhaps they could explore.

I agree.

The player-fan relationship is a two way street. There have been occasions, especially away from home, where the fans have dragged the players through. This is likely because away ends are full of diehards.

There have been times where the ground was quiet and the players started a press or put in a crunching tackle, and that kicked the fans into life. The 2 feed off each other.

We’ve lost the last 3 at home, scoring only once, and the performances have been pretty poor. The players have to accept that they have to give the fans something to get behind, and then it’s on the fans to react.

Calling it out is all well and good, but I’m not sure it’ll have any effect. They’ve been getting called out for years and it still happens.

A potential solution - keep the big exit gates closed until the final whistle, exiting is possible but only by scanning your ticket on a turnstile. That way the club can monitor who leaves and if it’s clear they’re doing it every week, they can contact them?

Like the idea of keeping the big gates locked until final whistle, all those who want to leave early are scanned. Repeat offenders miss out on loyalty and moved to the Premier Concourse the following season out of the way.

 

[Vauxie]

Maybe their legs had gone

 

[tunstallhill]

I can tell you now that the atmosphere will not improve.

The reason being that the fans, sub-groups, whatever you want to call them, who act as representatives of the fans and talk to the club; are all the same kind of people. They're all people who are bothered about things such as the bogs not being big enough, the paths outside the ground being dangerous, the pies in the ground not being good enough and loads of other daft shite.

If you want the atmosphere to improve then working class male football fans are gonna have to be represented when talking to the club, and in the ground you're gonna have to leave them to be what others consider to be a bit of a nuisance instead of slavvering on about how they're trying to kill everyone through putting a toe in the aisle and second hand smoke.

Tell Granit Xhaka from me at your meeting: the authorities in this country have sanitised the shite out of football, they have created a situation whereby a football ground is now full of consumers who treat it as being an entertainment, no different to being at the Oxford Cambridge boat race, in fact it's probably more rowdy there. If Granit wants the atmosphere to improve, tell him to start using his influence in the club and spreading the word that the working class lads need to be accommodated, one step at a time, first off: turn a blind eye to the lads having a tab in the bogs.

you'll get pelters for this, but a lot of the sentiment is absolutely bang on

the autorities, and SAFC as part of that, have spent decades sanitising the fuck out of football to make it more family and child friendly (which it should be) but have neglected the core element of what made football grounds tick for the entire history of the game - i.e working class, young lads

the club have to follow whatever legislation drives the SAG and the safety certificate that allows the SoL to host games, and that in turn makes going to the match a lot duller that it was

the safe standing has been a good addition, they need to extend it down to the front of the south stand and possibly the north stand. it would improve the atmosphere a little bit

i've said for years there should be an 'under 25 enclosure' , probably a few blocks at the front of the south stand, where teenagers can go and be around their own kind and mess around and gather and have a laugh without irritating the older blokes around them. i'd fuck off all the rules around digital tickets and just let people have plastic cards and let them share them around with their mates freely without all the online bollocks (i know this is never going to happen)

there is loads the club could do, but they'll have their hands tied by the authorities and only want to implement easy changes

 

[Locke's SAFC]

I was at said meeting recently and it was squarely focused on the atmosphere, not other stuff.

Maybe, but the damage has been done over many years, decades even, in the sense that they've sanitised the shite out of football and nobody is gonna turn that 'round by having a meeting.

The reality is, the working class lads will create the atmosphere, and I don't mean those who wear a bobble hat a and a Smith's t-shirt in the back of the Roker End.

They're either accommodated warts and all, or it's a waste of time talking about atmosphere.

 

[tunstallhill]

Maybe, but the damage has been done over many years, decades even, in the sense that they've sanitised the shite out of football and nobody is gonna turn that 'round by having a meeting.

The reality is, the working class lads will create the atmosphere, and I don't mean those who wear a bobble hat a and a Smith's t-shirt in the back of the Roker End.

They're either accommodated warts and all, or it's a waste of time talking about atmosphere.

cheap tickets that are easy to share around mates, unreserved standing, no stewards. give the entire south stand to that type of set up and let it grow

look at the massive open terraces in germany

 

[dred73]

Great if true. When you're in the crack with your mates it's easy to completely miss that the game has restarted, so anything they can do to alert people is worthwhile. Not everyone wants to stand there and miss kick off, but it's easily done.

Surely fans know what time the kick off is before they go to the match.

 

[MackemMagic]

For example, some people need to be at home, some need to visit their grandparents, and others may be dealing with serious illnesses that require their presence. Children also need to be looked after, especially if a partner has to be somewhere else. Everyone has different circumstances in their lives. It’s not their fault if they need to leave early.

That is true of a small minority I'm sure, but its hugely coincidental that so many others have these pressing issues when we're getting beat, and not when we're winning isnt it?

 

[Locke's SAFC]

cheap tickets that are easy to share around mates, unreserved standing, no stewards. give the entire south stand to that type of set up and let it grow

look at the massive open terraces in germany

Reckon it's a culture and a mindset. You can reduce ticket prices and so on, but if there's a culture of stopping lads being a bit of a nuisance at all costs then it's difficult to see it improving. Do they go on like that in Germany? I doubt it.

What you're saying there isn't a bad idea at all. Let the stewards go to other parts of the ground where the health and safety types need them to help them stay alive.

 

[Randy Savage]

Maybe, but the damage has been done over many years, decades even, in the sense that they've sanitised the shite out of football and nobody is gonna turn that 'round by having a meeting.

The reality is, the working class lads will create the atmosphere, and I don't mean those who wear a bobble hat a and a Smith's t-shirt in the back of the Roker End.

They're either accommodated warts and all, or it's a waste of time talking about atmosphere.

I understand your point, but I think you’re doing a bit of a disservice to those who you wouldn’t regard as ‘working class lads’ and overplaying the impact of said ‘lads’.

I’ve been at plenty games where I’ve seen such lads too pissed to get behind the team, and I’ve also seen plenty games where such lads have sloped off early for a pint.

I probably wouldn’t fall in your definition, but I will sing and encourage the team for 90 mins.

 

[Shibby Safc]

Wonder what the overlap is of people leaving early, and those that weren't around for l1 and championship.

 

[Binxy]

It’s because we have one walkway for the entire lower bowl.

All fans from both the upper and lower sections of the lower bowl have to go onto the same level to go out via the same access tunnels.

At stadiums where the pitch is at ground level, the upper section have separate access tunnels. Look at how many tunnels there are at SJP, Old Trafford & Anfield for example.

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18 access tunnels in the lower Stretford end in that photo.
How many are in the entire South Stand, 5-6 maybe?

 

[Locke's SAFC]

I understand your point, but I think you’re doing a bit of a disservice to those who you wouldn’t regard as ‘working class lads’ and overplaying the impact of said ‘lads’.

I’ve been at plenty games where I’ve seen such lads too pissed to get behind the team, and I’ve also seen plenty games where such lads have sloped off early for a pint.

I probably wouldn’t fall in your definition, but I will sing and encourage the team for 90 mins.

You're right, back in the day there were other types who made the atmosphere, but the working class lads who a lot of people today don't like, were a big part of it. A huge part of it. And, the other fans in an end didn't think their fellow fans were the scum of the earth, so it was all a load of people singing together.

 

[Cack Stottie]

Surely fans know what time the kick off is before they go to the match.

We're talking about half time.

 

[UltimateRadgieGadgie]

Let's be honest - 99% of people who leave early do so because it saves them time and they get home a bit earlier. They don't want to spend 10 mins stuck at the back of the stand or an extra 30 mins in traffic or whatever. Some may also want to sneak an extra pint in before they have to be home.

If we're serious about combatting this issue then the club needs to look at ways of clearing the ground quicker at full time (it doesn't take 20 mins to get down the steps btw it takes 10 - I've timed it) and of easing traffic congestion around the ground. Also, needs to be a quicker turnaround of getting drinks served to people at half time (this should be the easiest one to solve in theory).

Either that or the team has to put in a brilliant performance every week and every game has to be a classic that goes down to the wire (never going to happen and even if it did some would still leave).

They could ban half time pints as well as closing bar 10 mins before kick-off, that would solve an issue haha

 

[Bonzo]

Like the idea of keeping the big gates locked until final whistle, all those who want to leave early are scanned. Repeat offenders miss out on loyalty and moved to the Premier Concourse the following season out of the way.

Will all those that arrive late be scanned and moved to the concourse